Meet the drug companies fighting Ebola

RussBritt

An image of Ebola virus, left, and health worker treating patients for the deadly disease

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- A couple have only existed for a short time, the bulk have no more than 200 employees each, and most have lost money for years and are expected to continue to do so.

Take a good look, because these drug companies are the combatants in the war against the deadly Ebola virus. And investors have been pouring money into them since Texas health officials announced the first case of the disease in the U.S. earlier this week.

One is well-established British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline
GSK, +0.48%
, which is working on an Ebola vaccine in conjunction with the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, or NIAID, unit. Glaxo’s story is well known: Nearly 100,000 employees, roughly $40 billion in annual sales. Profits, though diminishing a bit as it loses patent protection on some of its offerings, still are firmly in the black.

There’s also, oddly enough, the Japanese photographic company Fujifilm Holdings Corp.
FUJIF, +0.00%
, with nearly $20 billion in sales and $1 billion in annual profits. Japan’s equivalent to the U.S.’s Eastman Kodak
KODK, +3.13%
prior to the digital age, Fujifilm has diversified into chemicals, medical products and pharmaceuticals. Its Toyama Chemical Co. has been contracted out to test an anti-influenza drug on an Ebola patient.

The rest, however, are a fraction of that size, and many are unwilling to share their stories. None have sales exceeding $20 million a year or are showing a profit. Yet they’re making more of a splash on the markets than either Glaxo or Fujifilm. Here’s a snapshot of each:

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp.US:TKMR: Tekmira has gotten the biggest stock boost of all the Ebola players as its therapy, TKM-Ebola, seems to be getting the most attention from regulators and investors. The company recorded $15.5 million in sales for fiscal 2013 and a loss of 87 cents a share. It has roughly 85 employees, according to one government web site.

Based in Burnaby, British Columbia, Tekmira’s drug has been used on a number of infected patients, including Richard Sacra, the American missionary who contracted the deadly virus in Liberia. That’s helped boost Tekmira shares from around the $10 level before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it the green light in July to go ahead with testing on its therapy, to $25.47 at Thursday’s close. The stock was up another 7% to $27.25 in premarket trade Friday.

Tekmira’s financial prospects aren’t promising, at least not yet. Analysts still expect losses of $1.68 a share for 2014 and $1.57 for 2015, on sales of $14.4 million and $17 million, respectively. The company isn’t commenting on the Ebola situation just now.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Corp.BCRX, -6.21%: BioCryst also declined to comment, but the company is developing a therapy for NIAID, paralleling Glaxo’s vaccine work. Remember, its therapy is for already infected patients, while vaccines like those by Glaxo are used to prevent the disease.

BioCryst last month received a $4 million pact to develop its BCX4430, which it hopes can be used for a wide spectrum of viruses like Ebola. The drug proved helpful in tests on yellow fever patients.

BioCryst, however, is in much the same boat as Tekmira. Its 2013 sales were $17.3 million and have been declining steadily for several years, after reaching a high of $74.6 million for fiscal 2009. The company has reported annual losses for a decade, and analysts expect another loss of 83 cents a share for 2014. Based in Birmingham, Ala., BioCryst employs roughly 40 people.

That hasn’t stopped investors in recent days. On Thursday, shares were up nearly 12% to $11.33 on investor hopes its Ebola drug will gain traction.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.SRPT, +2.19%: Sarepta is probably one of the least-active players in Ebola right now, but the company’s chief executive, Chris Garabedian, did speak with MarketWatch.

Sarepta was developing two drugs to treat the family of maladies known as hemorrhagic fever viruses, one for Ebola and one for the similar Marburg virus, as part of a contract with the Defense Department. In 2012, with warnings of a fiscal cliff looming over Washington, the Pentagon decided to cut its Ebola program, but kept the Marburg program going.

Garabedian says that its Ebola test program, which he said could be resumed quickly, resulted in a 60% to 80% survival rate when used on test monkeys infected with Ebola. Its Marburg drug has proved 80% to 100% effective. Sarepta used a gene-sequencing technique to come up with its treatment, and Garabedian says it can be easily adapted to treat other diseases. A new gene sequencing matrix to treat Dengue fever using the same technique was developed in 11 days, he said.

The government could call for his company to develop his treatments, since in urgent situations, a number of drug makers are called upon to make a research push.

“They like to hedge their bets a little bit, especially with investigational drugs,” Garabedian said.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company has roughly 200 workers. Sarepta’s financials, however, look much like BioCryst and Tekmira. Sales totaled $14.2 million for fiscal 2013. Losses were $3.31 a share. Garabedian hopes a muscular dystrophy treatment it is developing will pull the company into the black and keep it there.

NewLink Genetics Corp.NLNK, +4.42%: Based in Ames, Iowa, with about 100 employees, NewLink is the only one of the small-cap companies that is working on a vaccine, a program begun with the Public Health Agency of Canada. NewLink got FDA approval to conduct Phase 1 studies of the drug last month in the U.S.

The company’s shares have been up and down, getting a boost after Tuesday’s revelation that an Ebola case was diagnosed in the U.S.

NewLink was founded in 1999 and went public in late 2011. The company has yet to turn a profit as a public entity, losing $1.23 a share last year. Sales totaled $1.1 million.

Mapp Biopharmaceutical (private): Mapp’s therapy for Ebola, known as ZMapp, is getting a lot of attention for its ability to treat the disease, even if the company is getting no mileage in the stock market.

ZMapp has been was used to treat two U.S. health workers who were infected but recovered. Three Liberians were treated with ZMapp, one of whom died. An elderly Spanish priest died after using the drug, but a British nurse working in Sierra Leone recovered after receiving ZMapp.

Since Mapp is private, there are no financials readily available on its web site, and no company officials could be reached for comment.

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